Diseased Cinema
Discusses how the depiction of diseases in movies has changed over the last century and what these changes reveal about American culture
James Bond Will Return
Bronze Medal, 2025 Eiffel Award - Retrospective, Eiffel Foundation For over six decades, James Bond has been a fixture of global culture, universally recognizable by the films' combination of action set pieces, sex, political intrigue, and outrageous gadgetry. But as the British Empire entered the final stages of collapse, as the Cold War wound down and the "War on Terror" began, and as the visions of masculinity and femininity the series presented began to strike many viewers as outdated, the Bond formula has adapted to the changing times. Spanning the franchise's entire history, from Sean Connery's iconic swagger to Daniel Craig's rougher, more visceral interpretation of the superspy, James Bond Will Return offers both academic readers and fans a comprehensive view of the series's transformations against the backdrop of real-world geopolitical intrigue and sweeping social changes. Leading scholars consider each of the twenty-five films in the series, showing how and why Bond has changed and what elements of the formula have stood the test of time. Each chapter examines a single film from a distinct position, giving readers a full picture of the variety and breadth of the longest-running series in cinema history. Close formal readings; production histories; tracings of the political, social, and historical influences; analyses of the series' use of then-new filmmaking technologies; reflections on the star personas that have been built around the character--these and many more approaches combine to produce a wide-ranging view of the James Bond film franchise. Essential reading for Bond scholars and aficionados alike, James Bond Will Return brings out the many surprising complexities of an iconic character.
The Legacy of the X-Files
The Legacy of The X-Files examines the content and production of the show, its reception, its use of legend and folklore, its contemporary resonance in politics and society of the 21st century, and its impact and legacy on film, television, the Internet and beyond. Having converged with the early widespread use of the Internet, The X-Files became a cultural touchstone of the 1990s, transforming from a cult TV show into a pop cultural phenomenon by the end of the decade. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of The X-Files, this collection examines the content and production of the show, its reception, its use of legend and folklore, its contemporary resonance in politics and society of the 21st century, and its impact and legacy on film, television, the Internet and beyond. The series' themes of government mistrust, conspiracy, folklore, UFOlogy, and faith are dissected and applied to how the show spirituality resonated with post-Cold War Western society. Contributors to this collection discuss the wide-ranging impact of the television show in popular culture, from Mulder and Scully 'shippers' to the show's slogan entering the contemporary lexicon. The Legacy of The X-Files serves as an all-encompassing, multi-disciplinary, contemporary account of The X-Files, reflecting upon critical, historical, political, and social contexts, and featuring an in-depth and comprehensive introduction making it a vital work for researchers and students alike.
A Guide to Post-Classical Narration
In A Guide to Post-classical Narration, Eleftheria Thanouli expands and substantially develops the innovative theoretical work of her previous publication, Post-classical Cinema: an International Poetics of Film Narration (2009). A Guide to Post-classical Narration: The Future of Film Storytelling presents a concise and comprehensive overview of the creative norms of the post-classical mode of narration. With dozens of cases studies and hundreds of color stills from films across the globe, this book provides the definitive account of post-classical storytelling and its techniques. After surfacing in auteur films in varied production milieus in the 1990s, the post-classical options continued to gain ground throughout the 2000s and 2010s, gradually fertilizing several mainstream productions in Hollywood. From Lars von Trier's Europa (1991) to Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead (2021) and Baz Luhrmann's Elvis (2022), the post-classical narration has shown not only impressive resilience but also tremendous creativity in transforming its key formal principles, such as fragmented and multi-thread plotlines, hypermediated realism, parody, graphic frame construction, complex chronology, and intense self-consciousness. Through the meticulous textual analysis of the post-classical works, Eleftheria Thanouli addresses head-on a series of methodological questions in narrative research and brings the tradition of historical poetics back into the limelight. By reinforcing her previous work with numerous new films as well as more nuanced narrative terms and concepts, she not only strengthens her position on post-classical cinema but also establishes the relevance of formalist analysis in the study of film today.
The Non-Professional Actor
Provides the first critical overview of acting, stardom, and performance in post-war Italian film (1945-54), with special attention to the figure of the non-professional actor, who looms large in neorealist filmmaking. Italian post-war cinema has been widely celebrated by critics and scholars: films such as Bicycle Thieves (De Sica, 1948) and Paisan (Rossellini, 1946) remain globally influential, particularly for their use of non-professional actors. This period of regeneration of Italian cinema initiated the boom in cinemagoing that made cinema an important vector of national and gender identity for audiences. The book addresses the casting, performance, and labour of non-professional actors, particularly children, their cultural and economic value to cinema, and how their use brought ideas of the ordinary into the discourse of stars as extraordinary. Relatedly, O'Rawe discusses critical and press discourses around acting, performance, and stardom, often focused on the 'crisis' of acting connected to the rise of non-professionals and the girls (like Sophia Loren) who found sudden cinematic fame via beauty contests.
The Monomyth Reboot
In this book, Nadia Salem examines and questions the enduring relevance of the monomyth, or the hero's journey, for storytellers and their audiences. Created by Joseph Campbell and largely popularized by George Lucas, the hero's journey has come to define mythic quests for all. However, in recent years, this genderless paradigm has lost its appeal as a repetitive Bildungsroman, and as a result, Salem argues for the inclusion of the heroine's journey as a K羹nstlerroman and a voice of alterity. Where the hero's journey reflects a coming of age, the heroine's journey reflects a coming of middle age, which are arguably equally necessary for the complete fulfillment of character. Taking a fresh look at the monomyth, Salem analyzes the narratives of Eros and Psyche, Jane Eyre, and Titanic to argue for an emphasis on the integration of both the hero's and the heroine's journeys. Ultimately, this book demonstrates how the monomyth as rebooted turns monomythic mythopoesis into fertile ground for the kinds of epiphanies demanded by transmodernism. Scholars of film studies, communication, composition, and mythology will find this book of particular interest.
A Guide to Post-Classical Narration
In A Guide to Post-classical Narration, Eleftheria Thanouli expands and substantially develops the innovative theoretical work of her previous publication, Post-classical Cinema: an International Poetics of Film Narration (2009). A Guide to Post-classical Narration: The Future of Film Storytelling presents a concise and comprehensive overview of the creative norms of the post-classical mode of narration. With dozens of cases studies and hundreds of color stills from films across the globe, this book provides the definitive account of post-classical storytelling and its techniques. After surfacing in auteur films in varied production milieus in the 1990s, the post-classical options continued to gain ground throughout the 2000s and 2010s, gradually fertilizing several mainstream productions in Hollywood. From Lars von Trier's Europa (1991) to Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead (2021) and Baz Luhrmann's Elvis (2022), the post-classical narration has shown not only impressive resilience but also tremendous creativity in transforming its key formal principles, such as fragmented and multi-thread plotlines, hypermediated realism, parody, graphic frame construction, complex chronology, and intense self-consciousness. Through the meticulous textual analysis of the post-classical works, Eleftheria Thanouli addresses head-on a series of methodological questions in narrative research and brings the tradition of historical poetics back into the limelight. By reinforcing her previous work with numerous new films as well as more nuanced narrative terms and concepts, she not only strengthens her position on post-classical cinema but also establishes the relevance of formalist analysis in the study of film today.
The Jurassic Park Book
The definitive 1990s blockbuster, Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park met with almost universal critical and popular acclaim, broke new ground with its CGI recreation of dinosaurs, and started one of the most profitable of all movie franchises. To mark the film's 30th anniversary, this exciting illustrated collection of new essays interrogates the Jurassic Park phenomenon from a diverse range of critical, historical, and theoretical angles. The primary focus is on Jurassic Park itself but there is also discussion of the franchise and its numerous spin-offs. As well as leading international scholars of film studies and history, contributors include experts in special effects, science on screen, fan studies, and palaeontology. Comprehensive, up to date, and accessible, The Jurassic Park Book appeals not only to students and scholars of Hollywood and contemporary culture, but also to the global audience of fans of the greatest of all dinosaur movies.
Atmosphere, Architecture, Cinema
Atmosphere, Cinema, Architecture: Thematic Reflections on Ambiance and Place explores cinema and architecture as ambient and affective settings or circumstances that can enable the emergence of atmosphere. This book is an interdisciplinary reading of cinematographic practice which develops useful implications for spatial composition in art and architectural design. The way a film is set up, directed, composed, framed, and technically constructed can provide parallels, analogies and metaphors for the spatial organisation of cities, landscapes and buildings. Likewise, the way a built setting is conceived and devised can inform approaches to framing and spatial organisation in cinematography. The book begins on a personal note with a series of recollected atmospheric experiences, leading to an investigation of ambiguity and consilient discrepancy as circumstantial conditions necessary for the production of atmosphere. The mood of melancholia is explored to show the pivotal role that ambiguity, discrepancy and irresolution play in its distinctive ambiance. Atmosphere is then defined as an emergent condition arising between an ambient, affective circumstance and a mooded human being. The book then moves to analyse the inherent conditions in the setup of filmic and architectural settings that render them atmospheric. Reference is made to the cinema of Bresson, Resnais, Lynch, Tarr, Malik and Campion, and to Romanesque tympanae, the architectonic scenography of Franz Kafka's novel The Castle and the work of Spanish architects Flores Prats. The concluding section, Anatomy of Atmosphere, is a lexicon of concepts, themes and tactics around atmosphere that might usefully inform creative practice.
The Drive-In
The Drive-In meaningfully contributes to the complex picture of outdoor cinema that has been central to American culture and to a history of US cinema based on diverse viewing experiences rather than a select number of films. Drive-in cinemas flourished in 1950s America, in some summer weeks to the extent that there were more cinemagoers outdoors than indoors. Often associated with teenagers interested in the drive-in as a 'passion pit' or a venue for exploitation films, accounts of the 1950s American drive-in tend to emphasise their popularity with families with young children, downplaying the importance of a film programme apparently limited to old, low-budget or independent films and characterising drive-in operators as industry outsiders. They retain a hold on the popular imagination. The Drive-In identifies the mix of generations in the drive-in audience as well as accounts that articulate individual experiences, from the drive-in as a dating venue to a segregated space. Through detailed analysis of the film industry trade press, local newspapers and a range of other primary sources including archival records on cinemas and cinema circuits in Arkansas, California, New York State and Texas, this book examines how drive-ins were integrated into local communities and the film industry and reveals the importance and range of drive-in programmes that were often close to that of their indoor neighbours.
Visual Effects for Indie Filmmakers
This book provides independent filmmakers and VFX artists with tools to work collaboratively and effectively on their low-budget films. Experts Shaina Holmes and Laurie Powers Going define common VFX needs and demystify the process of incorporating VFX into all stages of production.
Torturous Etiquettes
"Etiquette," as noted toastmaster Herbert V. Prochnow once pointed out, "is knowing how to yawn with your mouth closed"--that is, to spare the feelings of the other person, one must stifle one's own. To be polite, therefore, is to perform. Onscreen, closeups often reveal the effort that goes into maintaining that performance: with a fleeting frown or a slight scowl, an actor reveals the "torture" of mannered behavior. In Torturous Etiquettes, Daniel Varndell examines such gestures to reveal the difficulties of the social encounter. Drawing on the history of etiquette, the book deconstructs an array of examples from classical and contemporary Hollywood and European cinema, taking a close look at onscreen representations of rudeness, ridiculing, racist and sexist etiquettes, hospitality, table manners, and more. In doing so, it reveals etiquette to be a persistent theme in cinema and questions the role it plays in either upholding or denying the basic humanity of others.
The Film Buff's Guide
Do you love cinema and want to know more about its history? Are you a film fan looking for an informative yet light-hearted review of the last one hundred and thirty years of the silver screen? If so, you've found what you're looking for!In this book, TV and movie star David Barry takes us on a journey through the history of cinema, from the silent movies at the time of the birth of the industry all the way up to today's CGI-fuelled blockbusters. The author guides us through this huge subject in an easy-to-follow fashion, with amusing facts and hilarious anecdotes peppered throughout the book. Quotes from some of the movie world's best-known lines of dialogue are used to illustrate the narrative, and some amazing trivia is supplied, enabling the reader to impress their friends and acquaintances with little-known geek-level movie facts.With something here for everyone, you'll never be at a loss when answering - or even setting - quiz questions! Whether you're already a movie-buff with plenty of knowledge, or a film fan seeking an understanding of how we got to where we are today, this is the perfect book for you.
Breaking Into The Movies
NEW PRINT WITH PROFESSIONAL TYPE-SET IN CONTRAST TO SCANNED PRINTS OFFERED BY OTHERS Breaking Into The Movies This book is a result of an effort made by us towards making a contribution to the preservation and repair of original classic literature. In an attempt to preserve, improve and recreate the original content, we have worked towards: 1. Type-setting & Reformatting: The complete work has been re-designed via professional layout, formatting and type-setting tools to re-create the same edition with rich typography, graphics, high quality images, and table elements, giving our readers the feel of holding a 'fresh and newly' reprinted and/or revised edition, as opposed to other scanned & printed (Optical Character Recognition - OCR) reproductions. 2. Correction of imperfections: As the work was re-created from the scratch, therefore, it was vetted to rectify certain conventional norms with regard to typographical mistakes, hyphenations, punctuations, blurred images, missing content/pages, and/or other related subject matters, upon our consideration. Every attempt was made to rectify the imperfections related to omitted constructs in the original edition via other references. However, a few of such imperfections which could not be rectified due to intentional\unintentional omission of content in the original edition, were inherited and preserved from the original work to maintain the authenticity and construct, relevant to the work. We believe that this work holds historical, cultural and/or intellectual importance in the literary works community, therefore despite the oddities, we accounted the work for print as a part of our continuing effort towards preservation of literary work and our contribution towards the development of the society as a whole, driven by our beliefs. We are grateful to our readers for putting their faith in us and accepting our imperfections with regard to preservation of the historical content. HAPPY READING!
Acting On Camera The Australian Way
Acting On Camera The Australian Way is your complete guide to developing your skills to become a working actor in film and television.- Do you know how to act in front of the camera?- Do you know how to make impact on screen?- Do you know how to make an impact in your auditions?- Do you know how to make an impact in your self-tapes for auditions?- Do you know how to make compelling characters?- Are you concerned with what to do with your face and body and voice?- Do you know how to do scene study - Australian style?- Do you know how to analyze actors work on screen?- Have you always wanted to know why Australian actors do so well around the world?- What are the differences between Australian and American actor training? This second book by international author & acting teacher & coach Paul Parker, will empower you and answer all these questions above, and more. A qualified teacher, Paul will walk you through exercises, step by step, on how to become a working actor on screen. In the book you will also receive the learning points at the end of each chapter and be given tangible examples and exercises, taken from lesson plans from Paul's curriculum.
Television Show Trends, 2016-2020
What do Euphoria, Normal People, Atlanta, Ramy, Vida, I May Destroy You, Stranger Things, and Lovecraft Country have in common? In the 2016-2020 time period they were created, these TV shows exemplified one (or more) of four noteworthy trends: authenticity, diversity, sexual candor, and retrospection. This is the first book to examine live action, fictional television shows produced within a five-year period through the lens of the trends that they epitomize. For each show, the following is discussed: the significance of the platform and the format; the intentions of the creators and showrunners; pertinent background information; similar shows and precedents; the storytelling approach; the cinematic form; and finally, how the show is emblematic of that particular trend. Since trends have the possibility of becoming part of the mainstream, they are important to identify as they emerge, especially for viewers who have a keen interest in narrative television shows.
Darker Than the Sun
Explore the world of James Bond like never before with Darker Than the Sun, a visually rich travelogue charting 007's journey through six decades of espionage, glamor. and adventure. Whether you're a lifelong Bond aficionado or a curious traveller drawn to the allure of exotic destinations, this book invites you to follow in the footsteps of the world's most iconic secret agent. From the sun-drenched beaches of Jamaica to the icy peaks of the Swiss Alps, from the neon-lit streets of Bangkok to the grandeur of Venice and Istanbul, Darker Than the Sun charts the evolution of Bond's cinematic geography. Each chapter is dedicated to a single film from the series, presented in chronological order, and includes: Over 200 stunning photographs, including behind-the-scenes content, iconic film stills, never-before-seen images from crew members, and contemporary shots.Exclusive new interviews with Bond filmmakers, location scouts, and production designers, offering insider perspectives on how and why each destination was chosen. Global locator maps that trace Bond's journeys across continents, highlighting both real and fictional settings. Feature maps that zoom in on key destinations, revealing how locations were transformed for the screen. Anecdotes that uncover the logistical challenges and creative decisions behind Bond's most memorable moments. Historical and cultural context that explores how Bond's locations reflect things like changing global politics, travel trends, and filmmaking techniques. You'll discover how Pinewood Studios became a stand-in for Venice, how a Jamaican bauxite mine doubled as Dr. No's lair, and how a remote Thai island was transformed into the infamous hideout of Scaramanga. The book also explores the enduring impact of Bond on global tourism, with destinations like Piz Gloria and James Bond Island becoming iconic travel landmarks. Drawing from Ian Fleming's original novels, EON screenplays and decades of archival research, authors Matthew Field and Ajay Chowdhury bring their unparalleled Bond expertise to this definitive location compendium. Whether you're planning your own 007-inspired adventure or simply want to relive the thrill of Bond's most unforgettable missions, Darker Than the Sun is your passport to the ultimate cinematic journey.
The Documentary Filmmaker's Intuition
This book is an introduction to the art and craft of documentary film making with a focus on ethics and impact from development through distribution. Author Shannon Walsh explores point-of-view storytelling, writing for non-fiction, and the art of social change documentary.
Spanish Film Policies and Gender
This book provides a comprehensive cultural and historical account of the key film policies put into place by the Spanish state between 1980 and 2010 through a gendered lens, framing these policies within the wider context of European film and media legislation.
Tell Your StoryVisual Storytelling Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
First published in 2014. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Lights, Camera, Action
Lights, Camera, Action: A Student's Handbook to Film Production and DirectingLights, Camera, Action: A Student's Handbook to Film Production and Directing is a comprehensive guide for students interested in pursuing a career in film and media studies. This subchapter, titled "The Benefits of Studying Film Production and Directing," aims to highlight the advantages that come with choosing this field of study.One of the primary benefits of studying film production and directing is the opportunity to unleash your creativity. Through this course, students are introduced to the art of storytelling, allowing them to explore different narratives and express their ideas visually. They learn how to write scripts, create storyboards, and develop their own unique directing style. This creative freedom fosters a sense of self-expression and allows students to bring their visions to life on the big screen.Another advantage of studying film production and directing is the chance to work collaboratively. In the film industry, teamwork is crucial, and this course provides students with ample opportunities to collaborate with peers. They learn the importance of effective communication, problem-solving, and leadership skills. Working in a team not only enhances their interpersonal skills but also prepares them for the real-world challenges they may face in the industry.Additionally, studying film production and directing equips students with technical skills that are highly sought after in the job market. They gain hands-on experience with industry-standard equipment, such as cameras, lighting, and editing software. This practical training helps students develop a strong foundation in the technical aspects of filmmaking, making them competent and confident in their abilities.Moreover, studying film production and directing exposes students to a wide range of film genres, styles, and techniques. They learn about the history of cinema, exploring the works of renowned directors and understanding the evolution of filmmaking. This knowledge not only enhances their appreciation for the art form but also expands their horizons, allowing them to develop a diverse and well-rounded perspective.Lastly, studying film production and directing opens doors to various career opportunities. Whether students aspire to become directors, cinematographers, editors, or screenwriters, this course provides them with the necessary skills and knowledge to pursue their dreams. Furthermore, the film industry offers a plethora of job opportunities, both in traditional filmmaking and emerging digital platforms, ensuring a promising and fulfilling career path for students.
Yiddish Cinema
In this book, Jonah Corne and Monika Vrečar offer a conceptually innovative reexamination of Yiddish cinema, a crucial yet little-known diasporic phenomenon that enjoyed its "golden age" in the mid- to late 1930s. Yiddish cinema, they argue, exhibits a distinctive fascination with media forms, technologies, and institutions, and with relationality writ large. What stands behind this communication obsession, as it might be understood, is the films' engagement both with Judaic ideals and with a series of Jewish sociohistorical predicaments of troubled communication (immigration, displacement, the breakdown of tradition, and so on) that the films seek to reflect. Accordingly, the authors create a resonant conversation between Yiddish cinema, populated by an endless procession of disconnected characters ardently striving to rejoin the world of communication, and the brilliant yet underappreciated ideas of pioneering Czech-Jewish media theorist Vil矇m Flusser (1920-1991), who escaped Nazi persecution and built the first part of his intellectual career in Brazil. Indeed, the authors claim that the popular art of Yiddish cinema articulates in dramatic terms a version of the central Flusserian hypothesis that "the structure of communication is the infrastructure of human reality" and, by doing so, embodies a remarkable Jewish media theory "from below." Films discussed include The Wandering Jew (1933), The Dybbuk (1937), Where is My Child? (1937), A Little Letter to Mother (1938), Kol Nidre (1939), Motel the Operator (1939), Tevye (1939), The Living Orphan (1939), and Long Is the Road (1948).
Joan Crawford in Film Noir
Joan Crawford's contribution to film noir during the 1940s and 1950s, though rarely discussed in its totality, is one of her most impressive and far-reaching career achievements. Several of her noir and noir-tinged efforts contain arguably her best acting work, and all bear her personal stamp. These aren't conventional film noirs, they are Joan Crawford noirs: highly distinctive films that extended the boundaries of noir content and brought added depth and dimension to the noir style. Unlike most actors who routinely adapted to the needs of particular film projects and directors, she approached each film, first and foremost, as a Joan Crawford vehicle, often exerting great control over multiple production functions and at times operating as a de facto producer. Examining these films as a collective and relatively cohesive body of work, this book highlights what Crawford aspired to achieve in her art, how--when the circumstances were right--she could deliver superb results, how she helped expand the possibilities for noir, and why the best of her efforts speak across the decades with such intensity and authority.
Through a Noir Lens
Shadows. Smoke. Dark alleys. Rain-slicked city streets. These are iconic elements of film noir visual style. Long after its 1940s heyday, noir hallmarks continue to appear in a variety of new media forms and styles. What has made the noir aesthetic at once enduring and adaptable? Sheri Chinen Biesen explores how the dark cinematic noir style has evolved across eras, from classic Hollywood to present-day streaming services. Examining both aesthetics and material production conditions, she demonstrates how technological and industrial changes have influenced the imagery of film noir. When it emerged in the early 1940s, the visual style's distinctive shadowy look was in part a product of wartime cinema conditions and technologies, such as blackouts and nitrate film stock. Since the 1950s, technical developments from acetate film stock and new cameras and lenses to lighting, color, and digitization have shaped the changing nature of noir style. Biesen considers the persistence of the noir legacy, discussing how neo-noirs reimagine iconic imagery and why noir style has become a touchstone in the streaming era. Drawing on a wealth of archival research, she provides insightful analyses of a wide range of works, from masterpieces directed by Billy Wilder and Alfred Hitchcock to New Hollywood neo-noirs, the Coen brothers' revisionist films, and recent HBO and Netflix series. A groundbreaking technological and industrial history of an essential yet slippery visual style, Through a Noir Lens shines a light into the shadows of film noir.
Through a Noir Lens
Shadows. Smoke. Dark alleys. Rain-slicked city streets. These are iconic elements of film noir visual style. Long after its 1940s heyday, noir hallmarks continue to appear in a variety of new media forms and styles. What has made the noir aesthetic at once enduring and adaptable? Sheri Chinen Biesen explores how the dark cinematic noir style has evolved across eras, from classic Hollywood to present-day streaming services. Examining both aesthetics and material production conditions, she demonstrates how technological and industrial changes have influenced the imagery of film noir. When it emerged in the early 1940s, the visual style's distinctive shadowy look was in part a product of wartime cinema conditions and technologies, such as blackouts and nitrate film stock. Since the 1950s, technical developments from acetate film stock and new cameras and lenses to lighting, color, and digitization have shaped the changing nature of noir style. Biesen considers the persistence of the noir legacy, discussing how neo-noirs reimagine iconic imagery and why noir style has become a touchstone in the streaming era. Drawing on a wealth of archival research, she provides insightful analyses of a wide range of works, from masterpieces directed by Billy Wilder and Alfred Hitchcock to New Hollywood neo-noirs, the Coen brothers' revisionist films, and recent HBO and Netflix series. A groundbreaking technological and industrial history of an essential yet slippery visual style, Through a Noir Lens shines a light into the shadows of film noir.
Eleanor Roosevelt on Screen
Eleanor Roosevelt recognized the power of film and television, especially as educational tools to reach young people. She hosted three political talk shows in the 1950s and early 1960s, often appearing in guest spots to promote the United Nations, Democratic candidates, and progressive issues with Ed Sullivan, Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Mike Wallace, and Edward R. Murrow. In the 1930s and '40s, fan magazines such as Photoplay and Modern Screen published her opinions on the movies, and she boldly appeared in an interventionist prologue to the 1940 anti-Nazi film Pastor Hall. During World War II, she contributed to civil defense films and became a staple joke in Hollywood comedies. She also negotiated postwar representations of FDR on the big screen, culminating in 1960's Sunrise at Campobello, which portrayed her as the perfect wife. This book is the first to address Eleanor Roosevelt's moving image record and her relationship to film and television in the three decades from the 1932 presidential campaign to her death in 1962.
Reframing the European Other
During the last three decades, Europe has undergone numerous periods of economic and political instability. The process of European integration, once hailed as a beacon of a peaceful co-operation between many, if not all, European nations appears to be stagnating, giving rise to notoriously more frequent manifestations of xenophobic violence, nationalism and right-wing fundamentalism. This book evaluates the portrayal of the migrant Other in selected examples of contemporary French and German cinema from the period 1989-2020 in the context of the ongoing debate about European identity and its socio-political significance. It focuses on the films of some of Europe's most prolific contemporary filmmakers, such as Michael Haneke, Claire Denis and Fatih Akin. It examines cinema's importance not only in reference to various theoretical evaluations of the concept of European identity, but also many notable events that have taken place in Europe in the last thirty years, such as the collapse of the 'Iron Curtain' in 1989, the historical expansion of the European Union in 2004, the migration 'crisis' of 2015, 'Brexit' and the war in Ukraine.
Making Stereo Fit
Surround sound is often mistaken as a relatively new phenomenon in cinemas, one that emerged in the 1970s with the arrival of Dolby. Making Stereo Fit reveals that, in fact, filmmakers have been creating stereo and surround-sound effects for nearly a century, since the advent of talking pictures, and argues that their endurance owes primarily to the longstanding battles between stereo and mono technologies. Throughout the book, Eric Dienstfrey analyzes newly discovered archival materials and myriad stereo releases, from Hell's Angels (1930) to Get Out (2017), to show how Hollywood's financial dependence on mono prevented filmmakers from seeing surround sound's full aesthetic potential. Though studios initially explored stereo's unique capabilities, Dienstfrey details how filmmakers eventually codified a conservative set of surround-sound techniques that prevail today, despite the arrival of more immersive formats.
The Ghost in the Shell Book
THE GHOST IN THE SHELL BOOKVOLUME 2: ANIM?A Critical Study Color Editionby Jeremy Mark RobinsonThis is a study of the adaptations of Ghost In the Shell by Masamune Shirow (real name Masanori Ota, born in 1961, Kobe, Japan). Shirow is a Japanese artist best known for Ghost In the Shell, Appleseed and Dominion: Tank Police. Masamune Shirow is one of the great creators in the world of Japanese manga and anim矇 - his works have been the basis of several important franchises, with Ghost In the Shell the most famous. Shirow's art is marked by futuristic, cyber-punk settings, fabulous, often eccentric designs, elaborate mecha (such as tanks and mobile suits), attractive warrior women and detailed storytelling (accompanied by his famous, sometimes arcane notes). The impact of the work of Masamune Shirow has been immense in anim矇 and manga: Ghost In the Shell alone led to not one but two classic movies, two outstanding TV series (plus a third, the Arise series), and spin-off movies. Add to that the live-action Ghost of 2017, and more Ghosties on the way. Then there's the Appleseed digital animations and Appleseed cel animation, plus Black Magic, Real Drive, Ghost Hound (Unseen World) and Dominion: Tank Police. It all adds up to a remarkable presence in TV and movies. In cinema, Masamune Shirow's influence is easy to spot in the Star Wars prequels, in the Matrix movies, in Avatar, in Minority Report, in the Avengers series, and in many a superhero flick. The Ghost In the Shell Book: Volume 2: Anim矇 includes a biography; chapters on the two films of Shirow's signature work, Ghost In the Shell, of 1995 and 2004; a chapter on film director Mamoru Oshii; chapters on the TV series of 2002-2005 - Ghost In the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (plus the spin-off movies); chapters studying every episode of the TV series; chapters on the Arise and the 2045 series (and spin-off movie); a chapter on the 2017 live-action movie; appendices; resources; and filmography. Fully illustrated in colour, including images from Masamune Shirow's Ghost In the Shell manga, all of the adaptations, from the 1995 movie to the live-action version of 2017 and the 2045 series of 2020. The Ghost In the Shell Book is published in two volumes: Volume 1: MangaVolume 2: Anim矇Hardcover - full colour jacketed laminate cover (bound in hardcover, with a color flyleaf). Bibliography, resources and notes. 580 pages.www.crmoon.com
Archaeological Ambassadors
This book investigates why nations with rich archaeological pasts like Egypt, Greece, and Jordan gave important antiquities--often unique, rare, and highly valued monuments--to New York City, New York Institutions, and the United States from 1879 to 1965. In addition to analyzing the givers' motivations, the author examines why New Yorkers and Americans coveted such objects. The book argues that these gifted antiquities function as archaeological ambassadors and that the objects given were instruments of cultural diplomacy. These gifts sought to advance the goals of Egypt, Greece, and Jordan--all states that had rich cultural and archaeological heritages--with the United States, once an ascendent nation and then a global superpower, to strengthen cultural, economic, and political relations.
Migration, Dislocation and Movement on Screen
Contemporary screen industries such as film and television have become primary sites for visualizing borders, migration, maps, and travel as processes of separation and dislocation, but also connection. Migration, Dislocation and Movement on Screen pulls case studies in film and television industries from throughout Europe, North Africa, and Asia to interrogate the nature of movement via moving images. By combining theoretical, interdisciplinary engagements with empirical research, this volume offers a new way to look at screen media's representations of our contemporary world's transnational and cosmopolitan imaginaries.
A Director's Method for Film and Television
A Director's Method for Film and Television (1992) presents the 'cinematic language' approach to directing for film and television directors. It shows how the viewer perceives the nuances of the various pictures used to tell the story, and how movement within the frame creates drama and development.
From Blitz to Glitz
Jess Conrad is a name that will be instantly recognisable to anyone familiar with 1960s pop culture. Emerging from the decade as one of Britain's most versatile stars, Jess has sung on hit records, starred in cult movies, headlined stage shows... and hasn't stopped ever since!In this fascinating autobiography we are given unparalleled access to Jess's entire life story, from his childhood in London during the Blitz to his time as a Teddy Boy on the wrong side of the tracks, from being discovered by legendary music producer Jack Good to his work with peers such as Billy Fury and Cliff Richard, from starring in dozens of movies to wowing live theatre audiences all over the world... and so much more!Even in his eighties, Jess Conrad OBE remains one of the entertainment world's most sought-after figures, recently starring in ITV's hit reality series Last Laugh in Vegas, featuring on the BBC's much-loved quiz show Pointless and playing Batman actor Adam West in a critically-acclaimed biopic. As he has done throughout his life, Jess continues to raise funds for numerous good causes and was even voted 'King Rat' - the head of charitable showbiz institution The Grand Order of Water Rats, an organisation that has counted Laurel & Hardy, Bob Hope and Charlie Chaplin amongst its members. With anecdotes that will have you crying out with laughter and amazing revelations about some of the world's biggest stars that will surely leave you open-mouthed, From Blitz to Glitz is one of the year's must-read biographies. Co-written with TV producer and long-time friend Simon Withington, this is one book that you won't be able to put down.
Art Maps and Cities
This book presents an original study on how contemporary artists are exploring urban spaces through mapping. Despite a long history of representations of cities in maps, and the relationships that can be envisaged between art maps and cities in the contemporary world, little research is dedicated to investigating how artists intervene in the realm of urban cartography. The research examines a century-old history of art maps and draws on academic debates challenging traditional notions of maps as scientific artefacts produced through accurate measurement and surveying. The potential of art maps to construct personal narratives, through contestation, embodiment and play, is analysed in the city context, where spaces are shaped by urban planning and design, political ideologies and socio-economic forces. Adopting an exploratory and interpretative research approach that investigates the confluence of theories originated in different domains, this book conducts the reader todiscover what artistic practices can bring into a more creative, while inquisitive, understanding of cities. A series of semi-structured interviews with visual artists, enquiring how they apprehend, process and re-create urban spaces in artworks, explores cartographic process and methods in visual art practices in the twenty first century, which incorporates digital technologies and critical thinking.
The Lively Audience
The Lively Audience (1986) studies television from the children's own point of view. Contrary to most prevailing opinion, it contends that television has much to teach children, and gives us a different understanding of the child audience and the impact of their television viewing.
Film Festivals
Film festivals, once seen as only a matter for journalism, are increasingly a subject of attention within scholarly film studies. They are, as Mar Diestro-D籀pido argues, not only of cultural value in themselves but also sites of cinematic, artistic, social, political and economic exchange. Three fasci-nating case studies develop this argument beyond the habitual focus of critics and academics on Western film festivals: the Buenos Aires Festival de Cine Independiente, known as BAFICI, in Argentina; the BFI London Film Festival in the UK; and the San Sebasti獺n International Film Festival in Spain. Extensive interviews with the teams responsible for programming bring into the public domain the views and motivations of those who shape film festivals, creating a unique body of material for future scholars to draw on.Mar Diestro-D籀pido is a film academic, researcher and regular contributor to the BFI Sight & Sound magazine, and an experienced arts and media translator. Her publications include a BFI Modern Classic on Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth. Her doctoral research, on which this book is built, won the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland's prize for the best new thesis of 2015.
Emotional Expressionism
In Emotional Expressionism: Television Seriality, the Melodramatic Mode, and Socioemotionality, E. Deidre Pribram examines emotions as social relations through the lens of dramatic television serials as contemporary melodrama. She develops the concept of socioemotionality, addressing sociocultural forms of felt experience and exploring the role of emotions in forging narrative worlds. Through detailed analyses of serials like Killing Eve, How to Get Away with Murder, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Pribram argues that the prominent role emotions play in popular mediated narratives demonstrates the crucial impact of collective emotions--activated through aesthetic attributes--on cultural storytelling. Scholars of television, communication, media, and cultural studies will find this book of particular relevance.
Tsui Hark
TSUI HARK: THE DRAGON MASTER OF CHINESE CINEMA: A Critical Study----- By Jeremy Mark Robinson ----- Tsui Hark is the dragon master of Chinese cinema (Stephen Teo calls Tsui a 'lion dancer among film directors'). Yes - a master, a lion dancer, a sifu, a wizard, a dragon. ----- Tsui Hark is a one-man film industry - as a glance as his list of credits will show, along with setting up his own film company in 1983, Film Workshop. Tsui Hark directs movies like a force of nature. The energy coming off the screen is stupendous. He is a fearless filmmaker, willing to try anything to get a good shot. That feeling of fearlessness, and wildness, coupled with imagination and technical brilliance makes Tsui an incredibly formidable filmmaker. There are very few filmmakers on the scene today with those qualities in such abundance. When you come back to a Tsui Hark picture after looking at other movies for a while, you realize that this guy is so passionate about cinema, so willing to try anything, to experiment, to push the boundaries of what cinema can do, of what cinema can be. This man is on fire. Tsui Hark was born on January 2, 1951 (or February 15; some sources say 1950), in French Cochin China (Saigon, Vietnam). His name was originally Tsui Man-kong (he also been known as Mark Yu). In Cantonese, his name is Chui Hak; in Mandarin, it's Xu Ke. He had sixteen siblings (from three marriages). His father was a pharmacist. Tsui changed his name from 'Tsui Man-kong' to 'Tsui Hark' because he thought it was too soft, and for his 'King Kong' nickname. Tsui grew up in Saigon until the family moved to Hong Kong in 1966 (Tsui said he migrated around the age of 13, which make it 1964; others say he was 14).As a producer, Tsui Hark has been responsible for masterpieces including: the Better Tomorrow series, the Chinese Ghost Story series, the Swordsman series, New Dragon Gate Inn and The Killer, plus a host of hugely enjoyable films, such as: Once Upon a Time in China 4, Once Upon a Time In China 6, Vampire Hunters and Black Mask. Directors often work in contrasts - if they've just done a comedy, they might fancy a drama next. Tsui wanted to do something silly after his first three movies, which were 'very serious and very depressing'. Hence All the Wrong Clues, which was his first commercial hit (in 1981). And since then, Tsui had rarely let a year pass without releasing a movie as a director or producer (sometimes two! Sometimes three!). By 2014, Tsui had directed around 43 feature films. They include the Once Upon a Time In China series, the Detective Dee series, Blade, We're Going To Eat You, The Master, Zu: Warriors From the Magic Mountain, A Better Tomorrow 3, Green Snake, The Lovers, Seven Swords, Journey To the West, Shanghai Blues and Peking Opera Blues. ----- Fully illustrated in colour, with over 240 images from the films of Tsui Hark and other Chinese and Hong Kong productions. With filmography, bibliography and notes. 712 pages. Hardcover, with a full colour laminate cover, and a color jacket (flyleaf). www.crmoon.com
March of the Wooden Soldiers
March of the Wooden Soldiers, the 1934 Laurel and Hardy film originally titled Babes in Toyland, has been a holiday classic on TV since the early 1950s. The annual showing on WPIX in New York has kept this film alive in American popular culture, when for many years that film was all but unavailable anywhere else.The film exudes warmth, charm, happiness and a wish for love to conquer evil. The hundreds of people who contributed to making the movie certainly shared those emotions. But, as with any creative collaboration, there were conflicts.Behind the scenes, there were injuries, a divorce, a not-quite-legal marriage, a secret romance, a barroom fistfight, illnesses and a rift that nearly spelled the end of the Laurel and Hardy team. The film was made at great cost - and not just financial. The Laurel and Hardy film is an enduring classic, but it's only part of the fascinating story of Babes in Toyland.Featuring nearly 400 rare photographs, March of the Wooden Soldiers: The Amazing Story of Laurel & Hardy's Babes in Toyland brings to life Barnaby, Tom-Tom, Bo-Peep, the Bogeymen, and of course Ollie Dee and Stannie Dum, as it shares the full story of the making of the beloved holiday classic.
Maurice
Maurice, James Ivory's 1987 adaptation of the E.M. Forster novel, follows an Edwardian man's journey from the awakening of his desire for and love of men to self-acceptance. One of the most politically resistant films of the 1980s, Maurice dared to depict a young man's coming-out story and a happy ending for its lovers, Maurice and Alec. James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant, a couple whose cinema is synonymous with period film adaptation, released Maurice during the first AIDS decade, a time of flagrant transatlantic homophobia. Criticism following its release described Ivory as a superficial and staid director, while the film was received as a regression to the uncinematic and overly faithful style that characterized the early adaptations by Merchant Ivory Productions. Offering a close reading of Forster's novel and an analysis of Ivory's distinctive visual style, Richard Robbins's indelible score, and the performances of James Wilby, Hugh Grant, and Rupert Graves, David Greven argues that the film is a model of sympathetic adaptation. This study champions the film as the finest of the Merchant Ivory works, making a case for Ivory's underappreciated talents as a director of great subtlety and intelligence, and for the film as one worth recuperating from its detractors. Understanding Maurice as a fully realized work of art and adaptation, this volume offers insight into how a stunning novel of gay love became a classic of queer film.
Black TV
With iconic imagery and engrossing text, Black TV is the first book of its kind to celebrate the groundbreaking, influential, and often under-appreciated shows centered on Black people and their experiences from the last fifty years. Over the past decade, television has seen an explosion of acclaimed and influential debut storytellers including Issa Rae (Insecure), Donald Glover (Atlanta), and Michaela Coel (I May Destroy You). This golden age of Black television would not be possible without the actors, showrunners, and writers that worked for decades to give voice to the Black experience in America. Written by veteran TV reporter Bethonie Butler, Black TV tells the stories behind the pioneering series that led to this moment, celebrating the laughs, the drama, and the performances we've loved over the last fifty years. Beginning with Julia, the groundbreaking sitcom that made Diahann Carroll the first Black woman to lead a prime-time network series as something other than a servant, she explores the 1960s and 1970s as an era of unprecedented representation, with shows like Soul Train, Roots, and The Jeffersons. She unpacks the increasingly nuanced comedies of the 1980s from 227 to A Different World, and how they paved the way for the '90s Black-sitcom boom that gave us The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Living Single. Butler also looks at the visionary comedians--from Flip Wilson to the Wayans siblings to Dave Chappelle--and connects all these achievements to the latest breakthroughs in television with showrunners like Shonda Rhimes, Ava DuVernay, and Quinta Brunson leading the charge. With dozens of photographs reminding readers of memorable moments and scenes, Butler revisits breakout performances and important guest appearances, delivering some overdue accolades along the way. So, put on your Hillman sweatshirt, make some popcorn, and get ready for a dyn-o-mite retrospective of the most groundbreaking and entertaining shows in television history.
Cinecepts, Deleuze, and Godard-Mi矇ville
As the spread of knowledge and even theory becomes an increasingly audiovisual affair, how can philosophy adapt in ways that develop - rather than dilute - philosophical rigor and specificity? How can philosophy harness the potential of audiovisual media - being more formally multidimensional than text-only - to conceptualize with greater precision and depth? This book presents a theory of formal development of philosophy in this regard: a theory of cinecepts. While spanning film, media, art, and critical theories as well as philosophy, this study proceeds mainly through a close reimagination of the work of Gilles Deleuze, which allows for a merging of what he kept separated: filmic thinking and philosophical conceptualization. Jean-Luc Godard & Anne-Marie Mi矇ville's underexplored 1970s Sonimage works are also the subject of extensive examination, along with critical considerations of a contemporary era of academic video essays and phenomena like philosophy channels on YouTube.
Armchair Cinema
Since broadcast television first emerged as a serious alternative to the cinema, more people have seen films on TV than by any other means. Feature films originally made for the big screen were initially withheld from TV by the film industry in the competition for audiences. Struggles between film and television interests settled into a truce in the mid-1960s, since when thousands of films have been shown on British terrestrial television each year. They assumed particular importance in the 1970s and 1980s, when cinema blockbusters became major TV events and themed seasons gave viewers access to many older movies. This book provides a comprehensive history and analysis of the ways in which cinema films have figured in TV programming in the UK and the role that British television has played in changing the consumption of film entertainment.
Reimagining Israel and Palestine in Contemporary British and German Culture
Isabelle Hesse identifies an important relational turn in British and German literature, TV drama, and film published and produced since the First Palestinian Intifada (1987-1993). This turn manifests itself on two levels: one, in representing Israeli and Palestinian histories and narratives as connected rather than separate, and two, by emphasising the links between the current situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the roles that the United Kingdom and Germany have played historically, and continue to play, in the region. This relational turn constitutes a significant shift in representations of Israel and Palestine in British and German culture as these depictions move beyond an engagement with the Holocaust and Jewish suffering at the expense of Palestinian suffering and indicate a willingness to represent and acknowledge British and German involvement in Israeli and Palestinian politics. This book offers new ways of thinking about how Israel and Palestine are imagined and reimagined as topics of cultural and political interest in two countries that have had complicated histories with both Israel and Palestine, histories which are marked by each country's memories of the Holocaust and colonialism.
Women in East Asian Cinema
Women in East Asian Cinema brings together new and emerging work to highlight and explore the understudied contributions of women to the films and creative industries of East Asia. It is a book which foregrounds the importance of re-historicising women's creative labour in film, not just as actors on screen, but as voices who have steered the production, circulation and consumption of these films across global contexts.Over three sections, the book provides perspectives on gender representation in East and South-East Asian cinema; new explorations of women's labour contributions as directors, screenwriters, and editors; and considerations of the contemporary circulation processes through which such work reaches global audiences.By recentring women's film histories within the broader history of cinema and interrogating the geo-political boundaries of what might constitute 'East Asia' in the process, this volume makes a robust intervention into studies of East Asian cinema and women in film.
The Late and Post-Dictatorship Cinephilia Boom and Art Houses in South Korea
This monograph examines an unexplored area of South Korean cinema history- the 1985-1997 growth of art film exhibition, consumption, and cinephilia. This moment of heightened interest in art film altered how many Koreans conceptualised cinema and helped pave the way for the critical success of South Korean film. This historical study analyses the cultural, political, social, and economic developments of the post-1985 period that increased interest in European art film. It looks at the interactions of art house exhibitors with cinephile audiences, the media and the state-level administrators responsible for governing the industry. The aim of young cinephiles was nothing less than a bottom-up cultural transformation of a society emerging from three decades of dictatorship. The analysis is based on the previously unheard voices of audiences who participated in the cinephilia. This study is both a history of an era in Korean cinema and an argument about the impact of this period of cultural renewal on the industry.
Enchanted by Cinema
William Thiele is remembered today as the father of the sound film operetta with seminal classics such as Drei von der Tankstelle (1930). While often considered among the most accomplished directors of Late Weimar cinema, as an Austrian Jew he was vilified during the onset of the Nazi regime in 1933 and fled to the United States where he continued making films until the end of his career in 1960. Enchanted by Cinema closely examines the European musical film pioneer's work and his cross-cultural perspective across forty years of filmography in Berlin and Hollywood to account for his popularity while discussing issues of ethnicity, exile, comedy, music, gender, and race.
Uncanny Cinema
Murray Pomerance's latest book explores an encyclopedic range of films and television shows to demonstrate the difficulty of conveying the experience of viewing cinema through words and the medium of text. From On the Waterfront to Marriage Story, Uncanny Cinema illuminates that words and writing are in perilous waters when applied to cinema, similar to ungestured talk. The book begins with this problem using Julian Jaynes's thoughts on vocality and imagination before delving into three exploratory 'movements' arranged to alternately challenge, inspire, and confound the reader to question if we know what we think we know or even see what we think we see. The viewer is faced with disturbances, ruptures, and surprises that occur during the viewing experience, which Pomerance analyzes to stretch the sense of what we do and do not (or, possibly, cannot) know, particularly as we think, talk, and write about cinema.
